Bigfoot Fan Dies In Iraq
Posted by: Loren Coleman on February 17th, 2007
On February 8, 2007, the war in Iraq took someone who had lived a life that pursued passions in Bigfoot, dinosaurs, and “the unbelievable,” as one friend recalled.
Ross “Rocco” Clevenger (pictured above), 21, of Marsing, Idaho, was a U.S. Army Reserve sergeant, who died with two other Idaho buddies when a roadside bomb hit their armored vehicle in Iraq.
Today, Clevenger’s funeral will be held in the Idaho gym of the high school he attended.
In his friends’ remembrances, it is clear Clevenger shared many interests of all of us here. Here’s some of those recollections:
It’s hard to pick out one memory of Ross, he was a guy so unique every time you talked to him was a memory. What comes to mind when I think about Ross would be his creativeness and his unfailing belief in the unbelievable. Speech class in 10th would be the best example, when Ross did a speech on the existence of Bigfoot. The whole class was crying from laughter. He has been a hero of mine for awhile now; I’m glad the world views him as one too.— Amy Sullens
I remember him when we were in elementary school. You couldn’t catch him without a dinosaur in his hand.— Amie Vanek
In sixth grade, everyone would tease Ross and I, saying that we would make a good couple because we both had blond hair. The next year, using his junior high charm, we started dating. We had a lot of fun in junior high and high school and I will never forget his dinosaur run. You know what I’m talking about.— Rebekah Anderson
I remember him hardcore into dinosaurs when he was little.— Buddy Sevy
He was the ‘Dinosaur Man.’ He knew everything there was to know about them. Growing up in grade school he thought they were just the best thing since sliced bread.— Shannon Ineck
For more remembrances of Ross Clevenger, please read here.
Celebrities are not neccessarily just those that are on entertainment news day after day, when they die mysteriously in casino hotel rooms. I consider the real celebrities the people like Rocco Clevenger who deserve to be discussed and remembered for a very long time. My sympathies to his family and friends.
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
I am too anguished to comment rationally, I wish his family peace. Why are we sacrificing our brightest and best – let old men fight the wars and I’d bet they’d be over soon.
My heart shatters every time I read of more casualties in Iraq. I read of the three from Idaho who lost their lives while shedding many tears and this made it even more personal. I feel their family’s pain. My grandson spent a year in Iraq and it is something he will live with the rest of his life and we will too. I found myself at times, just holding my breath and willing him to be safe.
My son was over there for more than a year with the DoD. No matter how hard I tried to think positively, every time the phone rang my heart was in my throat when I answered it. Thank God he is back home now, safe and whole.
My heart goes out to all the families who have lost their beloved ones over there.
I respect the people who are over there putting their lives on the line every minute of every day. They are, as Loren said, the real celebrities.
joppa you are right. Every one of these “casualties” was a life, a life that had so much to give to the future. A treasure squandered.
I hate this war.
I’m a veteran myself and it’s always excruciatingly painful and emotional to hear about these courageous young men and women losing their lives in a conflict so far away.
Those in the armed forces everywhere and especially those in harm’s way will always have my deep respect and gratitude. It is no easy job. I hope and pray that this conflict will be resolved soon so that they can all come home to their loved ones.
My heartfelt condolences go out to Sgt. Clevenger and his two fellow soldiers families. May God comfort you at this most difficult of times. From a grateful American.
We have lost too many of our best and brightest. When will this insanity stop?
hey loren & everyone omg that is very sad what happened in iraq. when is this war going to end… thanks bill 🙁
Way too sad. Way too sorry.
Maybe the worst thing about this war is that our government doesn’t think it’s important enough for anyone to sacrifice for the cause but the ones fighting it and the ones they love.
I read about this kind of stuff in the paper everyday and it sickens me every time. I sometimes will read an article about soldiers who had died and lose my appetite for the entire day, I am so upset about it. I sit back, try to imagine what they must be going through, but I can’t and somehow I feel irresponsible that I can’t relate to their pain. There is no way for any of us who haven’t been there to know what it must be like. Especially from me, who does not personally know anyone over there, it may sound insincere for me to express such concern but my heart truly goes out to all of those over there and their families. I am being quite sincere when I say Ladd, I am glad you are safe. Kittenz, I am happy to hear that your son is Ok. I am speaking from my heart when I say that I hope that as many as possible get home safely and that their nightmares end. I truly hope that these sons, daughter, mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers over there in Iraq make it home to the people who love them.
May light perpetual shine upon him, and may his family and friends find peace.
My condolences to Ross’s friends and family. I was in Iraq myself with the British Royal Navy on river patrol and it’s not something I ever wanted to do again and one of the main reasons I left the Royal Navy. This war is a sham as all wars are. But every life lost is just a statistic to the leaders. It makes me feel like crying for the futility of it all.
As sadisticgreen says, the futility of it all makes you cry and it especially makes me cry to hear the young, brave men and women in the armed forces state that they are doing their duty to their country which they certainly are as they could not live with themselves if they refused their call to arms, however, what a shame to see them live and die, or be emotionally or physically wounded for a cause that is not just. It does, indeed, make you sick to your stomach. They either need to be brought home or provided the tools and manpower to end this thing NOW!